" Bad Pharma"

[Aliwally]

I'm not advertising this book by Ben Goldacre, just reading it. I'm only on page 63 and already learnt about unpublished data about drugs (in the news at the moment) and the problems of registering all trials. I would recommend it to anyone interested in how drugs get prescribed and ultimately swallowed each day by us, the patients.

[mags3003]

Not in anyway disagreeing as I haven't read this book, but if people don't want to take the drugs prescribed no one is forcing them, they can continue to suffer or live with their condition in the hope that it will get better all on it's own.

This book surely is the view of one person??? or is it accredited to all of the medical professionals??

I shall take my chances with the drugs prescribed by my doctor, everyone else can make their choice.

[Aliwally]

I was trying to remember the MP who had brought this issue up. It's Dr Sarah Wollaston. This applies to all drugs, not statins in particular. This link is about Tamiflu .

w.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2222220/Drug-firms-risking-lives-hiding-bad-trials-effects-medicines.html

[mags3003]

Of course it's not fair or correct, but not all Doctors will take an incentive to supply certain drugs. If it happens then it's very wrong, but i again will say that people who visit Doctors, do so because they are unwell and I do believe that the vast majority of doctors prescribe medicines to help.

I know that without medical intervention i wouldn't be alive today to reply to this comment, so therefore will take medication which my doctors give me.

They fully explain the reasons for each tablet needed, but it is still my decision to swallow it, not the Doctors.

Life is precious, and so far, whether or not the correct trials took place, I have so far lived 14 months longer.

[Aliwally]

I don't know if anyone saw the " Newsnight" report last night on drug trials in India. According to " Bad Pharma" page 112, it is becoming increasingly common for companies to run trials abroad where costs are cheaper but the human cost is higher if people suffer adverse effects.

Mags, I totally agree with your comments, my own daughter would not be alive but for powerful antibiotics given shortly after birth and it was not that long ago that children in this country died of diptheria and polio..thank goodness for vaccines.

I am reading this book to educate myself about the way the pharmaceutical companies run and to get some background information about the history of drug trials. Actually I was horrified to learn that until the 1980's in the US it was common practice to trial drugs on prisoners. I have always had an interest in the statin drug trials in particular and the way that information is presented.

[Aliwally]

Hi Ted,

I get your drift and appreciate your comments.

Aliwally jnr. was born with severe septicaemia caused by the group B streptoccocus, the commonest form of neonatal infection with a high mortality rate. She survived, but was left with severe cerebral palsy.

I have educated myself about the causes and prevention of this through my own efforts and now a very pro active charity (not the medical profession at the time) which is why I might appear rather biased against medics sometimes.

I have not, at this point come across any evidence suggesting that lack of vitamin D may be a cause of neonatal sepsis, although I know of the link between folic acid and spina bifida.

Two subsequent pregnancies resulted in two healthy babies.